That’s why I’m surprised: growing up my public schools all used Robinson projections and even warned us off Mercator. To my knowledge the Mercator hasn’t been “standard” in most places for a long time, though I am willing to be proven wrong

But at that point, the issue is with the equator and maritime navigation practices, rather than the mercator projection itself

That doesn’t seem right. I know the Robinson and Winkel were both formulated largely from base principles — being neither conformal nor equal area — and those are equally widespread. Equal Area maps are totally different.

I guess you could argue that Conformal maps as a category are mercator-based?

I didn’t realize the Mercator was still widely in use outside of Paradox Interactive games